A total 490 cases of surgical geriatric patients over 65 years old were clinically reviewed who underwent digestive tract operations for presentation of a detailed considerations of certain common associated disease, and postoperative morbidity
and
mortality in Department of General Surgery in Phil-Dong Hospital, Chung Ang University, College of Medicine during 23 years from beginning of 1970 to the end of 1992. Whole geriatric patients were 1.126 consisting 6.7% of all surgical patients.
The
surgical digestive tract disease in geriatric patients were 490 cases consisting 70.8% of major operations. The male to female sex ratio was 1:0.96. The most common age group was 65 to 69 with 50.2%. According to disease analysis, the most common
diseases was benign hepatobiliary diseases (26.1%), and the next was acute appendicitis (22.9%), and stomach cancer (19%) in order of incidence 348 cases (71%) of all had associated disease. The most common associated diseases were respiratory
diseases
(31.4%), and cardiovascular disease (29.2%). Postoperative complication rate was 28.6%. Respiratory complication (44.35) was the most common, and the next was wound complication (34.3%). The complication rate increased with aging, duration of
anesthesia, and associated disease (p<0.005). there were 11 cases of postoperative deaths and mortality rate was 2.2%. Sepsis (36.4%) was the most common cause of death. The mortality rate of the malignancy was 3.1%. All cases of postoperative
deaths
had associated disease. The mortality rate of the emergency operations was 3.5%, higher than 1.6% of elective operations (p<0.007).
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